Re: Antwort: Re: Responsibility, blame, managers, and getting the job done

[jenny_berger -at- fairfieldresidential -dot- com]

Thanks for clarifying, but I think this "management guidance" is where I 
disagree with you.

I agree that management has a place in providing project leadership. I 
don't agree, however, that management "guidance" is the best thing to turn 
a close-mouthed developer (or any SME) into a more "suitably 
collaborative" one. My experience with management "guiding" unresponsive 
developers to the promised land of mutual collaboration hasn't been 
pretty, and it always has set up a negative feedback loop that gets harder 
and harder to penetrate as time goes on. I guess I'm looking at this more 
as an interpersonal, relationship issue -- not a business or management 
issue. And my preference for interpersonal issues is to work it out 
directly with the other person, without involving a third-party. The 
developers I've worked with that way (so far) have appreciated that, as 
have management. 

Jenny Berger
Technical Writer
Information Systems
Fairfield Residential





"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- editors-writers -dot- info>
04/08/2003 10:32 AM

 
        To:     <jenny_berger -at- fairfieldresidential -dot- com>
        cc:     <bounce-techwr-l-115343 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" 
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
        Subject:        Re: Antwort: Re: Responsibility, blame, managers, and getting the job done



----- Original Message -----
From: <jenny_berger -at- fairfieldresidential -dot- com>
To: "Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- editors-writers -dot- info>
Cc: <bounce-techwr-l-115343 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>; "TECHWR-L"
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: April 08, 2003 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: Antwort: Re: Responsibility, blame, managers, and getting the 
job
done


> It is also somewhat distressing to hear a fellow tech writer advocate 
for
> an adversarial relationship between tech writers, developers and
> management. That is what I got when I read without emotion your comments
> about how management should order developers to "do their jobs" and pony
> up info to tech writers.   And that's what I still got when I read your
> follow-up comment about making interaction between writers and 
developers
> "policy." Please elaborate and correct me if I've misinterpreted.
>

Goodness! I seem to have managed quite nicely to put my foot in it, 
haven't I?
I intend only to say that where writers find developers unforthcoming,
management has to assist the writer by making it clear to developers that 
a
good product requires the participation of all in its creation. I'm saying
that only those developers who do not see that intuitively and act 
accordingly
need to be "ordered" by management to perform their jobs.


> From my experience, such policies do more harm than good because it 
tends
> to remove the tech writer's responsibility for content from the 
equation.
> I know you're not meaning to say that developers should be providing 
tech
> writers with content, but that's how it ends up being interpreted by 
both
> developers and tech writers when it becomes "policy." Professionals 
don't
> like to be micromanaged, and mandating through policy that developers be
> available to tech writers has exactly that effect.
>
>

I'm just saying that those developers who avoid answering questions and 
who
behave less than collaboratively need management guidance. I am certainly 
not
saying that developers should be spoon-feeding content. But I am saying 
what I
think all technical writers believe -- that developers should be aware 
that
documentation is part of the product itself and that writers will always 
have
things that need clarification.

Perhaps I am arguing a point that is so elementary that we all agree on 
it.
But it seems to always be lurking behind the "error" discussion.

In some ways, though, developers *do* give us content, of course. But 
that's
not what you're asking. I'm saying that a collaborative environment can 
only
be the result of management leadership, basically.

Does that clarify what I mean?

___________________________________
Bonnie Granat
Granat Editorial Services
http://www.editors-writers.info







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